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(No Model.)

G. M. WHEELER. PROUESS OF SGALDING NAPPED HATS.

N0.-Z44,O12. Patented July 5,1881.

UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE.

GEORGE M. WHEELER, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

PROCESS OF SCALDING NAPPED HATS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 244,012, dated July 5, 1881.

Application filed April 4, 1881.

fication and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

My invention relates to an improved process for scalding napped hats; and it consists in performing the scalding operation by mechanism adapted to imitate theoperations performed upon the hat-body when scalded by hand. Those operations consist in alternately dipping the body in boiling water, and rolling and pressing the same upon difi'erent sides while the bodies are wrapped two or three at a time in a suitable cloth. By these actions the nap is firmly united to the body-felt, the scalding water and the rolling and pressing exerting each an equal or essential influence in bringing the various fibers of the nap into the right position to interlock with the fibers of the body, and when performed by hand it usually takes more than an hour to do it properly.

The purpose of my invention is to effect the union of the nap and felt body in a much shorter time, and the improved process I have devised enables me to scald a dozen hats as effectually in a. half an hour as three can be scalded by hand-labor in an hours time.

My improvement consists in subjecting the bodies, after the naps have been stuck on by sprinkling with hot water and rolling in a cloth in the usual way, to the action of a machine where they will be rolled back and forth under suitable pressure, and a part of the rolling operation be performed under immersion in boiling water.

The mechanism to effect these operations may be constructed in various ways, and I do not, therefore, limit myself to the precise construction shown in the accompanying drawings, but may use any apparatus adapted to roll and press the bundle of napped bodies in the manner described, and to automatically perform a part of the operation under immersion in scalding water.

In the drawings annexed is shown a machine I have devised for this especial purpose, the

(No model.)

illustration displaying merely how I am able to substitute mechanism for hand-labor in the scalding operation.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the machine, a portion of one head of the jacket and tank being broken away to show the internal construction; and Fig. 2 is a plan of the same.

A is a tank nearly filled with water, heated by a steam-pipe, B.

O is a rotating and oscillating drum, surrounded by a yielding slatted jacket, D, the several slats being held in place by heads E, secured in the tank at each end of the drum, and by bands F, applied around the slats of the jacket over each head. The jacket is so arranged as to form a gradually-diminishing annular space around the drum, into which the felts are inserted at an opening, G, aroll, a, being shown just ready to enter the space,while another, I), is shown about to be discharged. The movement of the felts in the space or annular channel is effected by a peculiar movement of the drum, produced by the action of two pawls working in opposite directions upon two ratchet-wheels secured to the shaft 0 of the drum 0. One of the pawls, d, is operated to push its ratchet-wheel e a little farther than the other pawl, d, pushes its wheel 6'. The drum is therefore pushed back and forth at each revolution of the shaft f, which supplies the oscillating movement to the pawls by cranks g g and connecting-rods h h, and, being pushed farther in one direction than in the other, performs a complete revolution in about a minute and a half in the direction of the arrow shown in the channel above the felts a.

The lower part of the jacket and drum being immersed in boiling water, and the slats of the jacket admitting the water freely to the space inside, the felt roll is necessarily immersed in in the scalding water during a part of its progress around the drum. When the rollemerges, as at b, the operator opens the bundle and dips the felts singly in the boiling water in the tank, and then rolls them up again in different positions, to be subjected repeatedly to the same treatment in the machine.

By placing a bundle in the machine before removing one, the machine may be kept alternately operating upon two or three bundles, and the utmost production secured.

. much more effective and rapid in producing the union of the nap with the hat-body than the weak and irregular movements of the human hand, and deem its efficiency to arise partly from the persistence and regularity of its action upon the roll while in the space around the drum, and partly to the temporary immersion in boiling water, which, though only a part of a minute induration, is much more protracted a time than an operators hands would be able to endure. 1 consider, therefore, that my process possesses a point of difference from the scalding operation as performed by hand, and that it consists in performing a portion of thenecessary rolling and pressing under immersion in hot water. Any mechanism adapted to perform such operations may therefore be employed to carry out my process, provided it secures the primary object, which is the rolling and pressing in a more uniform manner than it can be done by hand.

It is plain that any automaticmechanism constructed to operate upon a hat for a definite time, and then to deliver it out of the pressing mechanism, will scald a large number of hats much more uniformly than any one man or set of men can do,with the chance of various distractions while they are operating upon the several packages. Thus a man, if hurried, cannot perform the scalding so perfectly as if allowed a plenty of time, and if paid by the piece one man may slight his work more than another would be willing to do. From such and other causes I find that the machine not only does much more work in a day with one attendant than the operator alone could perform, but that the product is uniform in quality, and consequently of much more value than that done by hand.

Although it would not be so advantageous a method, the rolling and pressing could be done for a definite time in an automatic machine not arranged to immerse the hat in water, and the operator could replace them in the machine, after putting them in scalding water, to efl'ect the object I am able to secure by the unassisted labor of my improvedmachine.

I therefore claim my improved process as performed in both manners in the following claims:

1. The process herein described for scalding napped hats after the naps have been stuck thereon'by any suitable means,which consists in rolling and pressing the hats by mechanism adapted to roll and press and discharge them automatically from the operation of the machine after a definite length oftime,wherebygreat uniformity-is secured in the duration of the scalding operation vand a greater uniformity in the product, substantially as herein set forth.

2. The'process herein described for scalding napped hats, which consists in rolling and pressing them in the manner described by mechanism adapted to roll andpress them for a definite length of time automatically, the hats being automatically immersed in scalding water during a portion of such time, and automatically discharged by themechanism at the expiration of such time, to secure the uniformity desired in the product, substantially as herein set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

G. M. WHEELER.

Witnesses:

THos. S. CRANE, Guns. LITTLE. 

